As electric vehicles (EVs) continue their rapid global adoption, ensuring high‑energy lithium‑ion battery safety has become a critical operational and compliance priority. Recognizing this, Raythink Technology today announced the release of
a new thermal safety white paper introducing its Thermal Vision solution, designed to visualize early thermal anomalies across EV lithium-ion battery production, testing, storage, and charging environments.
The white paper shares insights into key gaps in traditional lithium-ion battery safety monitoring and outlines how a scalable, integrated thermal safety baseline enables proactive, full-lifecycle management of EV battery thermal risks, supporting compliance readiness amid evolving global regulations.
Capturing the critical window
The white paper emphasizes that the key to lithium-ion battery safety is detecting the critical window between early thermal anomalies and full-scale thermal runaway.
Traditional BMS systems rely on point sensors such as NTC thermistors or RTDs. Each sensor covers only a limited area, so early thermal anomalies in unmonitored areas may go undetected. Fire detection systems, such as smoke and flame sensors, only activate once visible smoke or flames appear. By that time, the critical intervention window has often already passed. Continuous, full-area thermal monitoring is therefore essential to detect hotspots in time and prevent minor anomalies from escalating into catastrophic thermal runaway events.
Infrared thermal imaging addresses this gap by providing non-contact, continuous, full-area temperature monitoring for lithium-ion battery safety. Instead of measuring temperature at isolated points, thermal imaging visualizes the entire battery surface and surrounding environment in real time, making it possible to identify subtle hotspots, abnormal temperature gradients, and early-stage thermal trends before they escalate.
Building a thermal-safety baseline
Raythink's thermal safety baseline consists of three complementary layers that work alongside existing safety and control systems:
- Hardware layer: Infrared "eyes on site": Reliable thermal cameras are installed at critical points like the production lines, storage warehouses, and testing areas. They are built to operate in harsh conditions, including high temperatures, dust, humidity, and corrosive environments.
- Platform layer: Data & analytics: Raythink’s VIS3000 platform collects, visualizes, and stores thermal imaging data in real time. It supports trend analysis and incident review, while providing zone-, time-, and device-level metrics to assist safety teams, ensure compliance documentation, and support ESG reporting.
- Integration layer: Connect with existing systems: Raythink Thermal Vision integrates with BMS, DCS, fire alarms, and other safety platforms, enabling automated early-warning actions and maintaining traceable logs for compliance, audits, and insurance.
Together, these layers form a scalable, integrated thermal safety baseline that enhances proactive risk detection across the EV battery lifecycle.
Transforming EV battery safety with unified thermal monitoring
Building on this three-layer framework, the white paper emphasizes a unified approach to EV battery thermal safety.
EV batteries are exposed to mechanical, electrical, and thermal stress throughout their lifecycle. Any of these stresses may lead to thermal runaway. However, most monitoring solutions now in practice remain fragmented: different stages rely on independent systems that are not integrated. This lack of end-to-end monitoring makes it difficult to maintain continuous, traceable safety oversight.
Raythink's approach, in contrast, can be applied across key environments, including production and assembly lines, testing laboratories, storage facilities, charging and energy storage sites, and hazardous waste handling and recycling. A unified system enables continuous thermal monitoring at every stage while consolidating data from all environments onto a single platform. This consolidated dataset generates actionable insights and delivers multiple benefits beyond lithium-ion battery safety.
One of the most significant benefits is enhancing production quality. For example, during battery production and assembly, abnormal temperatures in welding, sealing, or tab joints often indicate latent quality issues. Continuous thermal monitoring enables early detection of these anomalies, preventing defect propagation. Additionally, it supports operational efficiency, process optimization, and compliance documentation.
Supporting compliance and maximizing ROI
As the EU advances its broader green and emissions-reduction agenda for the transport sector, electric vehicles are becoming increasingly widespread under supportive policies, while regulations on EV batteries are becoming more stringent. Regulatory oversight is no longer optional but mandatory. As a result, companies are investing more heavily in regulatory compliance and safety management systems.
Thermal safety monitoring plays a critical role in meeting these requirements. Continuous tracking of battery temperature across the full lifecycle provides proactive oversight, aligns with regulations such as the EU Battery Regulation and UNECE Global Technical Regulation (GTR) No. 20, and generates traceable records to support compliance and accountability in the event of incidents.
From a long-term operational perspective, thermal imaging systems also generate measurable ROI. Once installed, they require relatively low maintenance and ongoing software-update costs, while providing continuous, multi-stage monitoring that helps prevent costly incidents, optimize processes, and protect production uptime.
With over 16 years of experience in thermal imaging, Raythink has been a trusted partner to the global lithium-ion battery and new-energy sectors, serving leading manufacturers with top market share worldwide. The new white paper provides an in-depth look at how Raythink Thermal Vision enables proactive, full-lifecycle thermal safety management of EV lithium-ion battery.
For a detailed overview of the framework, practical applications, and case insights, download the full white paper.
For more information:
Email:
sales@raythink-tech.com
Website:
https://www.raythink-tech.com